Press Release: iMED receives Rockefeller Foundation funding

10 October 2017
Viktoria Mahrberg

Art / Earth / Tech are delighted to announce that they have received a grant of $199,975 from The Rockefeller Foundation. The grant will be used to launch the first phase of iMED (Innovating Medical Entrepreneurship and Delivery). The pro feject will focus on the research and design of alternative funding mechanisms to the monopoly rights system we have today.

“Today’s system of monopoly rights denies many crucial access to medicines, especially the poor. It also restricts future innovation which must build upon existing research,” says Dr Rufus Pollock, co-founder of Art / Earth / Tech and founder of Open Knowledge. Pollock, who leads the project, explains that “today we’re caught in a dilemma: either we grant patent monopolies that deny millions access to life-saving medicines or we harm future innovation by reducing prices and profits for drug companies. This needn’t be the case; it’s a false dilemma. With iMED, we hope to show that there are viable alternatives to monopoly rights that don’t pit incentives for innovation against access to medicine. We can have both.”

“Improving health outcomes at the individual and collective level is a complex challenge requiring innovative strategies and solutions to ensure access for all, including the poor and vulnerable,” says Saadia Madsbjerg, managing director of The Rockefeller Foundation. “The Rockefeller Foundation believes strongly in advancing health for all people, and we are excited to support the iMED project in its work to explore more inclusive models for financing medical innovation.”

As part of the project, the team will produce a series of white papers and communications materials to engage relevant stakeholders. In addition to this, they will host a high-level event in 2018 to bring these stakeholders together.

About Art / Earth / Tech

Art / Earth / Tech seeks to offer a new way of living and understanding modern life that allows participation in contemporary society while pursuing wiser and weller ways of living. A key part of this mission is creating an information economy that is fair, free, innovative, and, most importantly, works for everyone. We are a group of technical and artistic individuals, forming a collective community providing space to collaborate and communicate on creating this wiser, weller world.

If you have questions, comments or feedback join our chat channel or follow us on social media